1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for testing storage devices.
2. Description of Related Art
In today""s computing environment, users find themselves with ever greater storage needs. As a result, it is not uncommon for a given computing information system to have hundreds or even thousands of gigabytes of disks slated for use on large database applications. These disks are often arranged in a disk array. A disk array is a subsystem consisting of multiple disk drives under command of an array controller. A typical disk array is a mass storage system that employs a number of small form factor disk drives, which are linked to each other through an intelligent controller. These disk arrays are able to provide a significant amount of storage. Grouping of these drives together can provide substantial amounts of storage to meet the needs of most computer systems. These disk drives may be 5.25 inch or 3.25 inch disk drives. The disk array allows multi-user computer systems and workstations to have access to large amounts of storage capacity.
These disk arrays also may provide protection against loss of data when mirrored or used in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID). The typical approach used is a hardware disk array in which a disk controller implements RAID algorithms and, from the point of view of an operating system, resembles a single logical disk. Even with the protection against loss of data, it is inconvenient to have disk drives fail, especially when large numbers of disks are required to provide storage for users.
With the large storage needs and the proliferation of user-swappable disks, disk manufactures are decreasing the time required to place new disk drive systems into the market place. Unfortunately, failure probabilities rise with the introduction of new technology, and these new systems often have a higher probability of failure than systems offering older technology. Further, disk drives are occasionally moved from system to system. As a result, a user may be unsure of the history of a particular disk drive when it is moved or installed into the user""s computer system.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have an improved method and apparatus to reduce the probability of disk drive failures prior to use in a data processing system.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for testing storage devices in communication with a computer. Logical volumes are created on each storage device. Also, a file system is created on a first storage device in the storage devices, wherein the first storage device is a current storage device. The file system is copied from the current storage device to another storage device, wherein the another storage device is a storage device that has not received a copy of the file system wherein the another storage device becomes the current storage device. The file system is copied over and over again until all of the storage devices have received a copy of the file system. At this point, a single pass through these storage devices has occurred. Different numbers of passes may be selected depending on the amount of time during which testing should occur.
Any errors that occur during access and copying of the file system to different storage devices are stored. Once a selected number of passes have occurred, a report of errors is generated.